A Josephson junction (JJ) can be a boundary region of material that provides a weak link between two fully superconducting regions through which paired superconducting electrons can tunnel via a quantum mechanical process. Recently, the development of a prior art 3-terminal, nanowire-based superconducting electro-thermal device, referred to as an nTron has been reported, which has no Josephson junctions, but can perform the same circuit functions as a JJ. The nTron can use a localized, Joule-heated hotspot that is formed in the gate to modulate current flow in a perpendicular superconducting channel. A particular advantage of the nTron is that it can exhibit sensitivity sufficient to detect single flux quanta, but does not require integration into superconducting loops such as superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs), and so can avoid the issue of trapped flux in electromagnetically noisy environments. However, one disadvantage of such a device can be that the application is heat is required to selectively achieve the Josephson junction effect, so the device, must be heated and cooled, which can be difficult to control, and further which can be difficult to achieve rapid activation/deactivation cycles.
The device proposed here can take advantage of avoiding flux trapping issues. However, the device of the present invention can be distinct in that it can use an input gate field instead of the application of heat to induce changes in the conductivity of the nanowire channel. A local electric field applied across an untwined nanowire can cause a nano-scale strain which in turn causes the affected region to enter the normal state, effectively creating an at will Josephson junction. Such a device can have potential applications in classical and quantum communications. It can be integrated with many existing high critical temperature (high-Tc) superconducting technologies.
In view of the above, it can be an object of the present invention to provide Josephson junction components and methods for manufacture that can detect single flux quanta. Another object of the present invention can be to provide Josephson junction components and methods for manufacture that can achieve a Josephson junction effect without applying heat to the component. Yet another object of the present invention can be to provide Josephson junction components and methods for manufacture that does not require integration into superconducting loops, also known as superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs). Yet another object of the present invention can be to provide Josephson junction components and methods for manufacture that can selectively and rapidly activate/deactivate the Josephson junction through the use of an electric field. Still another object of the present invention can be to provide Josephson junction components and methods for manufacture that can be easily implemented in a cost-effective manner.